


The Ones She Loves

by spideyandstark



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff and Angst, LITERALLY SCREAMING, and they gave me ... a frog, bc i was waiting for river, oh well, yea i rewrote that scene from it takes you away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 10:32:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16830892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spideyandstark/pseuds/spideyandstark
Summary: White, all around her, born of the Solitract.And then there's her wife.





	The Ones She Loves

Suddenly there’s brilliant, white light; a monumental expanse outstretching in all directions, an empty canvas with a single, golden droplet of paint; two consciousnesses, together but so, so _lonely_ in this vacant new universe.

She strides forwards, pushing several messy strands from her eyes. Her arms fall to her sides and then slip behind her back and intertwine, maybe a reflex for comfort, or curiosity. She walks and walks and walks, unsure of direction in this endless blank - but never impatient, never quickening her pace so as to reach a certain end, because as far as she’s aware of in this moment, she’s never going to find an exit.

Finally a shadow forms in the white gloom, and she slows, treading towards it more carefully. It has shown itself, this beautiful sentience. She takes a few more paces and stops before a lone wooden chair, fingers slipping apart and resting at her sides.

“Hello,” she says, cheerily, hardly aware of the absurdity of communication with a conscious chair. The whiteness trembles and she flails her arms briefly to regain her balance. “Ah. Still one too many lifeforms in here with you.”

The chair, perhaps unsurprisingly, remains that way for several long moments, and the Doctor lifts herself up onto the balls of her feet and back down again, five times.

Then it shrinks away in a rapid flash of yellowing light and the Doctor shields her eyes. When she lowers her hand there’s the silhouette of a person and a very painful feeling in her chest that’s possibly a mixture of grief and joy, all intermingling in this trembling sphere of unstable emotion and it swells and makes her throat sore. She blinks, and then wipes at her eyes with her sleeve and tries to think of something clever, but instead there’s just sort of nothing.

“Hello, sweetie,” River - _no not River it’s not really River you idiot_ \- says, heels clacking against the unpigmented ground, and the Doctor shakes her head feebly but her heart doesn’t seem to listen because suddenly she’s in her wife’s - _not your wife, god, it’s not her_ \- arms.

“That’s low,” she finally chokes out, but she’s smiling at the scent of her on her clothes and in her hair, at the way she’s _taller,_ now, and finally against the brilliant lips that are locked against her mouth. She pulls back, shaking. “Come on now, don’t do this.”

“I can do better,” River smirks, drawing her back in her arms and oh god she wants to stay in them, she wants to paint on this empty canvas with her but she can’t because it’s _not_ her, she has to keep saying it to herself, River Song is _dead._

Suddenly the Doctor feels very sorry for Graham.

River frowns at the expression, and indicates vaguely around. “Where are we, then? Can’t say I’m a fan of the design.” 

“You’re not real, River,” the Doctor murmurs. 

“Ah. Shame,” is the response, a hand on her hip, fingers curling through new blonde hair, a grin. “Why don’t you just use your imagination?”

“Love to, but I’m afraid we don’t have much time,” the Doctor says, her hands sinking to River’s waist. The other woman starts swaying with her to an imaginary beat.

“Sweetie, we’ve got all the time in the universe.”

 _“You_ do,” the Doctor frowns, eyes downcast. “But only if you let me go. You know this can’t work; you know your universe is dying because I’m here.”

River tucks a finger beneath the Doctor’s chin and tilts her head up and plants a kiss to her lips. “This kind of sucks, you know.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

“It’s rather lonely,” River says, pouting at the endlessness of it all. “If you stayed here, it would’ve been nice. To have a _friend.”_ She winks, in that way that’s overly River, something deeper resting between the word itself and the drawl with with River delivers it.

“We’ll always be friends,” the Doctor says. “Best mates, you and me. Maybe even more in another universe.”

“Spoilers,” she grins, locking their mouths again with mindful brevity before drawing back and kissing her cheekbones, her neck, swooping gracefully to her collarbone. 

_“River,”_ the Doctor sighs, then she shakes her head. “Not River, the Solitract. Please let me go, now. I don’t want you to die.”

It’s so agonising. There’s a flicker of something painful in River’s expression, something distinctly alien to her, a certain vulnerability that the Doctor takes as the Solitract’s own feelings. 

“I want you to keep on being brilliant,” she continues, tugging her fingers through the shock of curly blonde. “And you know you can’t do that with me here.”

“I know,” she murmurs, the face of River Song but the voice of a timeless being, and then it’s River again: “But God, I’ll miss your perfect face. Spot on in this regeneration, by the way, it’s _right_ up my alley.”

The Doctor flushes and laughs and this time she initiates the kiss and it’s long and meaningful and dizzying, and then River’s hand is on her heart and there’s a jolting sensation and she’s laying on the ground in a tremouring cavern, and she sits up and looks into the portal and her wife is blowing her a kiss, smiling brilliantly, and the Doctor remembers the taste of her lips and the feel of her hair and the warmth of her hands; and then there’s Yasmin Khan helping her to her feet and the Doctor can only think about what an amazing thing love can be.

**Author's Note:**

> i couldn't stop lAUGHING at that goddamn frog. anyway here is river bc we were robbed, sorry i can't write her very well lmao
> 
> kudos and comments make me happy yeehaw


End file.
